Human rights pioneer remembered warmly

Tuesday

Dec 29, 2009 at 6:00 AMDec 29, 2009 at 8:33 AM

By Steven H. Foskett Jr. TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

Local poet Tony Brown remembered telling Dennis Brutus, the South African poet and former political prisoner, how much he enjoyed a particular poem Mr. Brutus had just read in 2001 at the old Java Hut in Webster Square. The poem involved the Chiapas rebellion in Mexico.

“I was sitting chatting with him, and I told him how much I liked his last poem, and he reached in his folder, took out a piece of notebook paper with the poem on it, signed it, and handed it to me,” said Mr. Brown, who was host of the Poets Asylum at the time. “I still have it.”

Mr. Brutus, a former poet-in-residence at Worcester State College, died over the weekend. He was 85, and had been battling prostate cancer. He fought apartheid in words and deeds and remained an activist well after the fall of his country’s racist system.

Mr. Brutus was jailed at Robben Island with Nelson Mandela in the mid-1960s. He helped persuade Olympic officials to ban South Africa from competition from 1964 until apartheid ended nearly 30 years later.

In a statement, Worcester State President Janelle Ashley said Mr. Brutus will be missed.

“Dennis Brutus was a beacon of hope for human rights around the world,” Ms. Ashley said. “The entire campus community and lovers of freedom everywhere will miss his great spirit. Worcester State College is so very fortunate to be the permanent home of his books, papers and journals.”

Mr. Brutus’ association with the school began in 1982, when he spoke at the inauguration of the Center for the Study of Human Rights. He donated personal manuscripts and other items to the center. He later donated more items to the college, which unveiled its Dennis Brutus Collection in 2000. He was appointed poet-in-residence for the spring semester in 2001.

According to the college, he composed several new poems while at Worcester State, including “Zocalo, March 11, 2001,” which he read during that year’s commencement.

Mr. Brown said Mr. Brutus had approached fellow poet Paul Gagnon while he was at Worcester State to find out about hooking up with the local poetry community.

“As the person who was the booking agent and host of the Poets Asylum, I immediately said, ‘Paul, get in touch with him, we’d love to have him come down and do a feature presentation,’ ” Mr. Brown said. “So he eagerly accepted, and within a few short weeks he was reading for us on a Sunday night down at the old Java Hut.”

The reading was brief; Mr. Brutus only read about three poems in half an hour, Mr. Brown said. But he talked with the audience and told stories. He was approachable and gregarious, Mr. Brown said.

“He mostly just talked about what life had been like,” Mr. Brown said. “He didn’t do an awful lot of poetry. But I really didn’t care.”

By the time he was in his early 20s, Mr. Brutus was politically involved and helped create the South African Sports Association, formed in protest against the official white sports association. Arrested in 1963, Mr. Brutus fled the country when released on bail, but was captured and nearly killed when he was shot as he tried to escape police custody in Johannesburg and was forced to wait for an ambulance that would accept blacks. Mr. Brutus was sentenced to 18 months at Robben Island.

Mr. Brutus emigrated to the United States in 1971, but his legal troubles did not end, and he fought deportation for two years in the 1980s before an immigration judge granted asylum.

Mr. Brutus engaged in protests against world financial organizations and in calls for stronger action against global warming.